Constructing Early Christian Families: Family as Social Reality and Metaphor

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Halvor Moxnes
Psychology Press, 1997 - 267 pages
The family is a topical issue for studies of the Ancient world. Family, household and kinship have different connotations in antiquity from their modern ones. This volume expands that discussion to investigate the early Christian family structures within the larger Graeco-Roman context.
Particular emphasis is given to how family metaphors, such as 'brotherhood' function to describe relations in early Christian communities. Asceticism and the rejection of sexuality are considered in the context of Christian constructions of the family. Moxnes' volume presents a comprehensive and timely addition to the study of familial and social structures in the Early Christian world, which will certainly stimulate further debate.
 

Contents

The social context of early Christian families
11
THE FAMILY IN FIRSTCENTURY GALILEE
42
THE FAMILY AS THE BEARER OF RELIGION
66
THE RELATIVISATION OF FAMILY TIES IN
81
IDEAL AND METAPHOR
103
FAMILY IMAGERY AND CHRISTIAN IDENTITY
121
A GENDER
183
Family sexuality and asceticism
199
ASCETICISM AND ANTIFAMILIAL LANGUAGE
216
FAMILY STRUCTURES IN GNOSTIC RELIGION
235
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About the author (1997)

Halvor Moxnes is Professor of New Testament at the University of Oslo, Norway. He is the author of The Economy of the Kingdom (1988) and other studies of social relations in early Christianity.

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